Ez I've said more'n once before, floatin' down a river with
somebody else pullin' at the oars is the life jest suited to me."
Henry looked up. "A summer thunderstorm is coming," he said, "
and from the look of things it's going to be pretty black.
Then's when we must dodge 'em."
He was a good weather prophet. In a half hour the sky began to
darken rapidly. There was a great deal of thunder and lightning,
but when the rain came the air was almost as dark as night. Mary
Newton and her children were covered as much as possible with the
blankets, and then they swung the boat rapidly toward the eastern
shore. They had already lost sight of their pursuers in the
darkness, and as they coasted along the shore they found a large
creek flowing into the river from the east.
They ran up the creek, and were a full mile from its mouth when
the rain ceased. Then the sun came out bright and warm, quickly
drying everything.
They pulled about ten miles farther, until the creek grew too
shallow for them, when they hid the boat among bushes and took to
the land. Two days later they arrived at a strong fort and
settlement, where Mary Newton and her four children, safe and
well, were welcomed by relatives who had mourned them as dead.
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